37 Comments
User's avatar
Greg Parsons's avatar

This middle class, middle aged, white guy is stunned and sickened by the continued support of Trump by people who look like me.

When I worked the 2022 election, old white voters would say shit to me as if I were one of them, and it was almost always racist and stupid.

I'm kinda worried about working in this election.

Tami Johnson's avatar

It defies all sensibility that any ordinary American should support a devolving madman like Trump, yet here we are.

Greg Parsons's avatar

Christian Nationalism is a helluva drug.

HulitC's avatar

I think Harris will win big. We’re not answering pollster calls, putting up yard signs in previously red territory to avoid the stormtroopers nor calling them out verbally, but we are voting. The winds are changing.

Michael Lease's avatar

I don't answer pollster calls or verbally confront Trumpers either. We did put up a Harris/Walz sign, though. We live just north of Kansas City, MO, and we're seeing lots of Harris/Walz signs and far fewer Trump signs than last time around. I agree, I think the winds are changing and a number of "red" states are likely to surprise everyone.

Elizabeth Behnke's avatar

Same here, Greg! I am heartily ashamed of the white people who would rather vote for a deteriorating orange clown than an energetic woman who knows what she is doing. I am a loud and proud old white lady for Kamala Harris.

Gisele Dubson's avatar

Take care.

Potter's avatar

This election is about the voters. It couldn’t be more obvious. It’s also about the Electoral College system that is plainly hurting us because it denies the popular vote. And lastly we can blame media I suppose but before the NYTimes I blame Fox news though the NYT is infuriating and very disappointing.

HulitC's avatar

Read that yesterday even Jamie Dimon (CEO Morgan Stanley Chase) is pro Harris but afraid to speak out for fear of hurting the business! The Times is worried too!

I think Harris will win. We’re the new “silent majority”

Potter's avatar

Women will do it in the privacy of the voting booth.

Patt's avatar

I think this too. The other day, 60 people did a Harris sign waving on a corner in Tucson. Some cars had a man driving who would not look at us, but the women in the car would give us a half smile.

Greg Parsons's avatar

Jamie Dimon is SUCH a douchebag. I know we all know this, but goddamn these billionaires and executives.

HulitC's avatar

They’re all cowards. Money before country.

Patt's avatar

The 7 swing states contain 18% of the population of the US.

Helen Hancke's avatar

Is the following a ridiculous thought: Trump is clearly unfit for office. And if he wins he will be a lame duck and the country will be governed by Vance and other dangerous surrogates, fulfilling Trumps voiced policy.🤔

I keep praying to higher forces that Kamala will win!🌟

Patt's avatar

"A major reason that Harris isn’t “running away with this” is because an overwhelming majority of white voters don’t find Trump’s malicious nature and fundamental unfitness disqualifying."

That's sick.

Beryl's avatar

You hit it right on the head when you laid a good bit of the blame on the main-stream media. Only scant mention has been made about trump's age while the media worked that into just about everything for 4 years. Trump is not only getting older by the day but he is deranged and where is that really playing in the media except occasionally in the last few days? And why are outright lies allowed to be perpetrated by trump when he speaks of Biden, Harris and many assorted others he dislikes? Is that not defamatory? And are there not laws about public defamation? And, let's face it, among the white male voters although denied by Harris, there is definitely a challenge to their so-called masculinity to even think about a woman (gasp!) becoming president of this country. Yet women have done exceedingly well in so many other countries but there they are not a challenge because the same men are not learning about anything other than their small orbit of disaffected haters.

Mark Mansour's avatar

Turnout is being underestimated. I believe Harris will win with a couple of states to spare. Trump tops out at 80 million votes (he got 75 million last time, so I’m being charitable. Biden got 82 last time. Many people voted again Trump rather than for Biden. This time, we have a popular Democratic candidate and a manifestly deteriorating opponent. She will get at least 90 million votes. That is enough to secure an electoral college victory. Don’t buy the polls; more than 80 of them are Republican sponsored. She will win this thing.

Heidi in Montana's avatar

The Christian nationalist phenomenon is for me one of the biggest reasons this race is registering as being close. For example, there is no possibility of me convincing my evangelical sister and her adult children that Trump is a menace because their pastor has taught them that women are to be submissive to men and thus incapable of being leaders, that Democrats are baby-killers and communists, and that voting for a Democrat is being against Jesus. There are so many clips of pastors praising Trump (technically, they shouldn't be according to tax policy, but no one is stopping them) in front of hundreds and sometimes thousands of people who lap up every hateful thing they're fed. The disgusting influence of many churches on their followers' critical thinking skills and compassion has been devastating to our democracy.

Mr. Niss's avatar

I am confident that Harris will win this election. What *really* concerns me about the tightness of this election is what happens next time, when Republicans maybe don't run a guy who has a myriad of disqualifying things in his history like Trump yet is still as authoritarian?

HulitC's avatar

That was my fear in this race even.

Krikit's Songs's avatar

I suspect it's the larger "reality" that's the real problem. When your idea of reality is that climate change is a hoax, that Jewish space lasers are a thing, that the "Biden crime family" is a real thing, that all the Q quackery is actuality, it really doesn't matter who is the GOP candidate. The baseline for MAGAs is way out in [right] field, believing in a host of lies, canards, and cons. They've been told not to believe what they hear with their own ears or see with their own eyes. Nothing VP Harris, or actual scientists, or truth-speaking historians may say will have any impact on those who are so far down the rabbit-hole as the Q-anon followers. The media never mention Q-anon any more. When one's entire political realm is based in fantasy-land, moving away from Trump would be a deep existential crisis of monumental proportion. Unravel just one string and their whole self-identity dissolves. They don't see the world in the same way as the rest of us, and they **can't** move.

bjkeefe's avatar

"... just 32 percent of registered voters believe the nation is headed in the right direction."

I don't know what to make of this stat anymore. Even though I think Biden has done a great job, and things would continue to improve if the Dems win the trifecta (dreaming!), I think if I were asked this question, I would be inclined to say "wrong direction" due to the dominance of the MAGA mindset. I suspect I'm not alone in this.

Stephen Robinson's avatar

Yeah, I would also answer that the nation isn’t headed in the best direction, as well. That doesn’t mean I blame Biden.

Dipesh's avatar

Thank you. Great article.

David Sea's avatar

Women and minorities (racial, ethnic, spiritual, LGBTQ+, etc,) have the most to lose if he's elected. Many white Christians have much less, if anything, to lose, so to them there's little to no downside.

MAGA Man: " Who cares if he hates women, blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Muslims, gays, trans etc? Who cares if he's gonna deport 20 million illegal immigrants. I'm NONE of those."

IMO, the races are tight because for each Harris supporter, there's one Trump supporter to cancel that one out. The few who don't have a corresponding match make up the margin.

David J. Sharp's avatar

Why is this race close? Because it’s a brave old world … circa 1954. The old rule of law party has become a lawless one in which the best, most outrageous lies win. Where the Rs want to abolish the Dept. of Education lest one might make up one’s own mind. Ditto women’s right of personhood. Ditto gays, lesbians and trans. What’s next? Long hair and sideburns?

Becky Daiss's avatar

It's the media, pure and simple.

Appropriate Adult's avatar

There must be a Russian strategy to hack the vote. I just can’t fathom that they don’t have a plan for this.

Dennis K Knudson's avatar

America has always had something disturbingly wrong with it's political views. Just consider the Civil War Era, Jim Crow, Woodrow Wilson, & the 30's to name a few. Consider that nearly 40% of the country had a positive view of & supported the nazis & Hitler in the 30's. Many of which joined organizations like the German-American Bunde. The numbers only dropped after hitler declared war on the US.